Indian Oil re assures availability of cooking gas despite locked down

Kolkata,01 April(HS): As the demand for petrol, diesel and aviation fuel in the country has dropped up to a record 20 per cent since the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequently locked down, the same for Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) for cooking has gone up manifold mostly because of panic booking by a section of consumers.

Reiterating that in spite of the steady rise in demand, there would be no shortfall in the regular supply of cooking gas anywhere in the country till the normalisation of the present situation, M Kalikrishna, Executive Director, Corporate Communications, Indian Oil Corporation told Hindusthan Samachar here this afternoon that in order to meet the increased demand for cooking gas IOC had already jacked up its production as well as the supply network in all its refineries.

Quoting IOC Chairman Sanjiv Singh,he said despite being the world’s third largest consumer of petroleum products,the country had enough stocks of not only petrol and diesel but also of LPG cooking gas.

‘We have calculated the demand for all petroleum products including those of cooking gas in the country for the next two months and have taken necessary steps to meet our commitment in every corner of the nation’, Kalikrishna quoting the Chairman said.

He said since the nationwide locked down has stopped plying of vehicles on the road, besides running of all passenger trains and all flights to and from the country, the demand for petrol and diesel had come down substantially of up to 20 per cent during the second half of March.

‘We expect similar condition would continue during this month also’, he said adding but on the contrary, the demand for the refilling of residential cooking gas cylinders had gone up by a record nearly 200 per cent, mostly because of panic reactions.

Accordingly LPG refill deliveries had been streamlined and kept the Emergency Service Cell (number 1906 )for LPG customers operational during the office hours,as usual.

‘Adequate stocks are available and there is no need for panic-booking by LPG customers’, he stated further adding maintaining the supply line In these trying times,Indian Oil was committed to ensuring emergency fuelling across all permitted modes.